The Ottomans and Turks need to thank the conquered Christians of the Greek speaking Roman "Byzantine Empire" for the Designs of thier Mosques, Administration, Science and Engineering. The only thing that the Turks did to Byzantine Churches is to replace the Cross with a Crescent.
"The writings of Classical antiquity were cultivated and extended in Byzantium. Therefore, Byzantine science was in every period closely connected with ancient philosophy, and metaphysics.[194] In the field of engineering Isidore of Miletus, the Greek mathematician and architect of the Hagia Sophia, produced the first compilation of Archimedes' works c. 530, and it is through this manuscript tradition, kept alive by the school of mathematics and engineering founded c. 850 during the "Byzantine Renaissance" by Leo the Geometer, that such works are known today (see Archimedes Palimpsest).[195]
Byzantines stood behind several technological advancements.
Pendentive architecture, a specific spherical form in the upper corners to support a dome, is a Byzantine invention. Although the first experimentation was made in the 200s, it was in the 6th-century in the Byzantine Empire that its potential was fully achieved.[196]
A mechanical sundial device consisting of complex gears made by the Byzantines has been excavated which indicates that the Antikythera mechanism, a sort of analog device used in astronomy and invented around the late second century BC, continued to be (re)active in the Byzantine period.[197][198][199] J. R. Partington writes that
Constantinople was full of inventors and craftsmen. The "philosopher" Leo of Thessalonika made for the Emperor Theophilos (829–42) a golden tree, the branches of which carried artificial birds which flapped their wings and sang, a model lion which moved and roared, and a bejewelled clockwork lady who walked. These mechanical toys continued the tradition represented in the treatise of Heron of Alexandria (c. A.D. 125), which was well-known to the Byzantines.[200]
Such mechanical devices reached a high level of sophistication and were made in order to impress visitors.[201]
The frontispiece of the Vienna Dioscurides, which shows a set of seven famous physicians
Leo the Mathematician has also been credited with the system of beacons, a sort of optical telegraph, stretching across Anatolia from Cilicia to Constantinople, which gave advance warning of enemy raids, and which was used as diplomatic communication as well.
The Byzantines knew and used the concept of hydraulics: in the 900s the diplomat Liutprand of Cremona, when visiting the Byzantine emperor, explained that he saw the emperor sitting on a hydraulic throne and that it was "made in such a cunning manner that at one moment it was down on the ground, while at another it rose higher and was seen to be up in the air".[202]
John Philoponus, an Alexandrian philologist, Aristotelian commentator and Christian theologian, author of a considerable number of philosophical treatises and theological works, was the first who questioned Aristotle's teaching of physics, despite its flaws. Unlike Aristotle, who based his physics on verbal argument, Philoponus relied on observation. In his Commentaries on Aristotle, Philoponus wrote:
But this is completely erroneous, and our view may be corroborated by actual observation more effectively than by any sort of verbal argument. For if you let fall from the same height two weights of which one is many times as heavy as the other, you will see that the ratio of the times required for the motion does not depend on the ratio of the weights, but that the difference in time is a very small one. And so, if the difference in the weights is not considerable, that is, of one is, let us say, double the other, there will be no difference, or else an imperceptible difference, in time, though the difference in weight is by no means negligible, with one body weighing twice as much as the other.[203]
Bas-relief plaque of Tribonian in the Chamber of the United States House of Representatives in the United States Capitol.
John Philoponus' criticism of Aristotelian principles of physics was an inspiration for Galileo Galilei's refutation of Aristotelian physics during the Scientific Revolution many centuries later, as Galileo cited Philoponus substantially in his works.[204][205]
The ship mill is a Byzantine invention, designed to mill grains using hydraulic power. The technology eventually spread to the rest of Europe and was in use until ca. 1800.[206][207]
In 438, the Codex Theodosianus, named after Theodosius II, codified Byzantine law. It went into force not just in the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire, but also in the Western Roman Empire. It not only summarized the laws, but also gave direction on interpretation.
Under the reign of Justinian I it was Tribonian, a notable jurist, who supervised the revision of the legal code known today as Corpus Juris Civilis. In the field of law, Justinian I's reforms had a clear effect on the evolution of jurisprudence, with his Corpus Juris Civilis becoming the basis for revived Roman law in the Western world, while Leo III's Ecloga influenced the formation of legal institutions in the Slavic world.[208]
In the 10th century, Leo VI the Wise achieved the complete codification of the whole of Byzantine law in Greek with the Basilika, which became the foundation of all subsequent Byzantine law with an influence extending through to modern Balkan legal codes.[107]
The Byzantines pioneered the concept of the hospital as an institution offering medical care and possibility of a cure for the patients, as a reflection of the ideals of Christian charity, rather than merely a place to die.[209]
Ceramic grenades that were filled with Greek fire, surrounded by caltrops, 10th–12th century, National Historical Museum, Athens, Greece
Although the concept of uroscopy was known to Galen, he did not see the importance of using it to diagnose disease. It was Byzantine physicians, such as Theophilus Protospatharius, who realized the diagnostic potential of uroscopy in a time when no microscope or stethoscope existed. That practice eventually spread to the rest of Europe.[210]
In medicine the works of Byzantine doctors, such as the Vienna Dioscorides (6th century), and works of Paul of Aegina (7th century) and Nicholas Myrepsos(late 13th century), continued to be used as the authoritative texts by Europeans through the Renaissance.
The first known example of separating conjoined twins happened in the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century when a pair of conjoined twins from Armenia came to Constantinople. Many years later one of them died, so the surgeons in Constantinople decided to remove the body of the dead one. The result was partly successful, as the surviving twin lived three days before dying, a result so impressive that it was mentioned a century and half later by historians. The next case of separating conjoined twins would not occur until 1689 in Germany.[211][212]
Many refugee Byzantine scholars fled to North Italy in the 1400s. Here John Argyropoulos(1415–1487), born in Constantinople and who ended his days in north Italy.
Greek Fire, an incendiary weapon which could even burn on water is also attributed to the Byzantines. It played a crucial role in the Empire's victory over the Umayyad Caliphate during the Siege of Constantinople (717–718).[213] The discovery is attributed to Callinicus of Heliopolis from Syria, a Byzantine Jew who fled during the Arab conquest of Syria. However, it has also been argued that no single person invented Greek fire, but rather, that it was “invented by the chemists in Constantinople who had inherited the discoveries of the Alexandrian chemical school...”.[200]
The first example of a grenade also appeared in Byzantine Empire, consisting of ceramic jars holding glass or nails and used on battlefields.[214][215][216]
In the final century of the Empire, astronomy and other mathematical sciences were taught in Trebizond; medicine attracted the interest of almost all scholars.[217]
The Fall of Constantinople in 1453 fueled the era later commonly known as the "Italian Renaissance”. During this period, refugee Byzantine scholars were principally responsible for carrying, in person and in writing, ancient Greek grammatical, literary studies, mathematical, and astronomical knowledge to early Renaissance Italy.[218] They also brought with them classical learning and texts on botany, medicine and zoology, as well as the works of Dioscorides and John Philoponus' criticism of Aristotelian physics.[219]"
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